Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor

Hope has spent her first 16 years of life isolated and intimidated. She has a photographic memory, suffers from crippling claustrophobia and migraines which come on whenever she is faced with a startling or threatening situation. When her mother died in an earthquake in India, Hope lost her focus and her protector. Left to the tender mercies of her domineering step grandmother and abandoned by her step father and his new girlfriend, Hope travels from the Southern States of America to Scotland to finally meet her mother's family.

Things are not quite what they seem and Hope's introduction to her aunt and cousins does not go smoothly. For a start, she stumbles upon an underground cavern which houses an array of costumes, artefacts and technology and a truth which staggers the mind. Her family are time travellers. Her mother was not in India at the time of the earthquake, but is trapped in 12th Century London. Only Hope, and two of her cousins can save her - and they only have 72 hours to do it!

The explanations for time travel and the technology which makes it all possible are quite intricate and sometimes confusing - which I'm sure they would be in reality. I enjoyed the way the characters developed over the course of the book and the fact that their relationships with each other are often confronting and abrupt. I like the way Hope's cousin did not automatically become her best friend and the fact that each character was flawed and not infallible. Hope herself is a contradiction, often showing flashes of spunk, determination and courage in trying circumstances, then struggling with less confronting or difficult events.

There is a lot of detail and description about the harshness, prejudices and difficulties of life in 12th Century England which was fascinating, however I had difficulty believing the events that allowed the 3 teenagers to have ready access to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and to be presented to King Henry II. The teenagers seem to struggle at times with the archaic language, and at other times conversed in their normal vernacular - but none of the 12th Century characters had any issues with their different speech, accents or lack of decorum. In fact, Eleanor and her companion seemed to speak Hope's language.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The issues with the 12th century not withstanding, and would recommend this book to older tweens / younger teenagers.